gs is the work of the
ever blessed Trinity; that upon every flower and every insect, generation
after generation of them, since the world was made, the ever blessed
Trinity has been at work, God the Father thinking and conceiving each
thing, in His eternal Mind, God the Son creating it and putting it into
the world, each thing according to the law of its life, God the Holy
Ghost inspiring it with life and law, that it may grow and thrive after
its kind--when such thoughts as these crowd upon you, and they ought to
crowd upon you, this day of all the year, at sight of the meanest insect
under your feet; then what can a rational man do, but bow his head and
worship in awful silence, adoring humbly Him who sits upon the throne of
the universe, and who says to us in all His works, even as He said to Job
of old, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? When
the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou seen the
doors of the shadow of death? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?
Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may
cover thee? Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto
thee, Here we are? Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the
appetite of the young lions? Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the
peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich? Hast thou given the
horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Doth the hawk
fly by thy wisdom? doth the eagle mount up at thy command?"

When God speaks thus to us--and He does thus speak to us, by every cloud
and shower, and by every lightning flash and ray of sunshine, and by
every living thing which flies in air, or swims in water, or creeps upon
the earth--what can we say, save what Job said--"Behold, I am vile; what
shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth."

But if God be so awful in the material world, of which our five senses
tell us, how much more awful is He in that spiritual and moral world, of
which our senses tell us nought? That unseen world of justice and
truthfulness, of honour and duty, of reverence and loyalty, of love and
charity, of purity and self-sacrifice; that spiritual world, I say, which
can be only seen by the spiritual eye of the soul, and felt by the
spiritual heart of the soul? How awful is God in that eternal world of